He woke with a start, his eyes scanning the dark room quickly, but Alex quickly drew in a breath and released it slowly, steadying himself. Everything was all right. The fact that no one had come to wake him meant that Emma was fine and under the watchful eye of Naomi or Sam or Pete or Violet or even Cooper, who had signed on as her pediatrician. But he knew they'd have come to get him if there were any problems, and that they had not meant his little girl was fine. So Alex settled back against the pillows, grateful his waking hadn't disturbed the redhead sleeping peacefully in his arms, and he closed his eyes as the day that had completely redefined his life slipped into a new morning.

It seemed unbelievable to him that just a dozen hours or so earlier he'd been in a job interview across L.A. full of hope that the hospital would take him on while he was riddled with anxiety about what would happen if they didn't. Henry Collier had struck Alex as a man who would be a demanding boss, but also a fair one, and though it had taken him a long while to decide moving South was the right choice, the comfort level he felt in his meeting at Children's had the second-year resident feeling confident he'd found the right place to continue his surgical training.

Alex had tried to focus on the meeting and not on the repeated vibration of his cell phone. It was only when it occurred to him that someone was trying a little too urgently to reach him for it to be random that he'd excused himself with Collier's blessing to find out what was going on. The resulting call to Oceanside Wellness had nearly stopped his heart.

He knew well enough that at 33 weeks, Addison's pregnancy had been stable and healthy enough for them to expect Emma to be fairly healthy despite what would undoubtedly be a low birth weight. All of Addison's tests had been absolutely normal, and other than the fall, everything had been rather routine. But Alex was also keenly aware of all the things that could go wrong in a premature delivery for both mother and child; he'd seen it firsthand in the O.R. time and time again. He also knew that despite the sophistication of prenatal testing and ultrasounds and amnios, conditions could go undiagnosed until a newborn was outside its mother, her body finally betraying the unexpected problem to doctors' eyes.

He knew all of this, and all he wanted was to get to St. Ambrose hospital as fast as humanly possible so that he could be there for his family no matter what happened.

Dr. Collier's generosity had stunned Alex momentarily, but he'd been happy to take the elder man up on his offer of a speedy helicopter ride to Santa Monica where Addison was probably scared out of her mind, her years of experience irrelevant in the face of her own pregnancy being compromised and her own child at risk. The fact that a job offer was also his for the taking was something Alex had barely registered at the time, his mind already racing across town and to what was happening there.

To try and distract himself, Alex kept his eyes glued to the daunting view of Los Angeles traffic that the helicopter ride provided him. Dr. Collier hadn't been kidding about the difference in travel times; it seemed the cars beneath him were barely moving as they zoomed past overhead. He couldn't imagine the hell of being trapped on the other side of all those cars with Addison and Emma in trouble. The idea that he could have been even further away, that he could have been at work in Seattle, hours away... it made him realize that he had made the only decision he could live with when it came to his future.

Twenty five minutes after he'd hung up the phone with Dell, Alex climbed off the Children's Hospital helicopter and made his way inside St. Ambrose. As he stepped through the doorway from the stairwell onto the OB/GYN floor, Addison's partners Pete and Violet turned toward him in astonishment.

[i]"You're here?" Pete said, though it sounded more like a question requiring confirmation.

"I had a job interview," Alex explained. "I didn't tell Addison in case it didn't work out, and then the phone kept ringing..."

He stopped talking when Violet's hand touched his arm.

"Sam and Naomi are with her, but she's a wreck. The baby's showing signs of distress, so they want to do a c-section."

Pete motioned toward a door across the hall, much the way he had the day the two men had met... the day Alex had heard the word "father" and realized it fit him just fine.

"Seeing you is gonna be the best thing for her."

Alex offered a small nod to the two doctors before heading into the hospital room. Sam and Naomi's eyes shot toward him as he entered, but Addison was laying on her side to try and help slow down any labor progression and she couldn't see him. She'd only heard the door open, and when Alex heard her voice cry out in reaction to it, his heart sank.

"No, I'm not ready yet. Try and call him again, please."

She sobbed, and Alex couldn't get to her side fast enough. As Naomi whispered to Addison reassuringly, Sam gently passed the hand he'd been holding into Alex's care.

"Addie, open your eyes for me, just for a minute."

The redhead resisted her friend's urging, but Naomi asked again, and finally Addison lifted her eyelids. Alex leaned down so his face was even with hers.

"So I guess our little girl's a drama queen, huh?"

"Oh, my God..." Her voice died out as she began to cry, and he leaned forward, pressing his forehead against hers. "You're here. How are you here?"

"I promise I'll fill you in later, okay?" He heard Sam and Naomi leave the room, his focus too much on the woman he was tending to allow him to look up. "How are my girls doing?"

"I don't know what I did. I... everything was fine, and then..."

Alex shushed her and let the hand that wasn't holding tight to hers drift into her hair as he softly brushed it back away from her face.

"You know better than that. You didn't do anything. It just happens."

She closed her eyes and after a moment, she nodded.

"I know. But it's happening to me, and I hate it."

Alex pushed the worries that had raced through his mind on the ride over to the back of his thoughts, hoping to hide any trace of fear so that all he let Addison see was the confident face she'd taught him to wear.

"I hate it, too. But you're in a great hospital with good doctors, and you know that a c-section is the best thing for you guys."

Her hand squeezed his. "I know. I just... you'll stay with her, right? If they try and keep you out of the NICU, tell Pete to page the Chief. And make sure Sarah's the NICU nurse assigned to her. Sarah's the best."

She sniffled and Alex was nearly certain he felt her tremble, but the tone of Addison's voice, at least for a moment, was far less the frightened mother and far more the NICU boss no one messed with.

"Is there anything else, Dr. Montgomery?"

He let his infamous cocky grin curl his lips as he spoke, and his comment was just enough to help her stop thinking for two more seconds, which was just enough to bring a small smile to her worried face.

"Emma's not taking after you... in anything. I just decided."

That made him laugh, then he pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"We'll fight about that later. Now let's go have a baby, okay?"[/i]

Alex opened his eyes as Addison stirred in his arms, but a quick glance told him she was still sound asleep. He wasn't surprised. After what her body had been through, he was just grateful that her heart was beating steady and strong.

It was an arrogance of their chosen specialty really... you expected things to go wrong when you were delivering triplets or when you were repairing some imperfection on a fetus while it was still inside its mother's womb. C-sections became routine--scalpel, cut, clamp, retract, extract, check for bleeders, stitch, done.

It was all routine until suddenly it wasn't... and you were keeping your promise, walking out of the O.R. with your baby girl in an incubator on the way to the NICU because it's what you swore you'd do... even as you heard a monitor alarm start to scream out behind you.

[i]"Her pressure's dropping."

"We've got a bleed."

Alex could barely believe what he was hearing. He'd been standing anxiously at Cooper's side as Addison's friend and trusted partner examined their newborn daughter. He had been relaying details back to her over his shoulder, and then the alarm went off and the surgeons began to move at a lightning pace he knew all too well.

"Hang blood and get an Oxytocin drip going now."

He barely heard his name when Cooper called out, halting the steps Alex was taking toward the operating table.

"We need to get her upstairs and check her breathing. Let's move."

Spinning on his heel, Alex looked at his little girl, her small body tense as she began to cry in earnest. Then he glanced back to the table where the doctors were working frantically to stop the bleeding that had left Addison unconscious and fighting for her life.

"I've got her," Naomi promised from her position at the top of the table, out of the way of the surgical team. "You go with Emma, and I'll take care of Addie. Go."

He felt like his chest was going to cave in and like he was leaving her when she needed him most... but Alex knew that even now her thoughts were about Emma, and so he followed Cooper out of the room so he could tell her later that he had kept his promise and watched over their daughter when she could not.

By the time they reached the NICU, Emma was wailing, and her blood pressure and heart rate were both elevated, and Alex could see the concern on Cooper's face as he took in the information the monitors were giving him.

"Let me hold her," Alex said. When his statement was met with questioning looks, he shrugged and pressed his way between two nurses so he could get closer to his daughter.

"She's freaking out. If you let me calm her down, you'll be able to tell if the readings are from stress or from her being sick."

"He's right," came a voice from the doorway. Alex turned and saw a woman whose whole demeanor screamed 'no nonsense.' "Dr. Montgomery's a big believer in touch therapy for the preemies. Give him a few minutes to calm her down. As long as she's on the monitor, we can keep an eye on her breathing."

Cooper nodded. "Sarah says let you hold her, you get to hold her."

Alex took a deep breath and stepped over to the opposite side of the isolette so he could lift Emma into his arms. He guessed her weight at around three and a half pounds, and he reminded himself that she wasn't nearly as fragile as she looked to him because of her tiny frame.

"Hey, baby girl, it's okay. Daddy's right here."

He spoke as he pulled her toward his chest, then Sarah approached, handing him a soft blanket, and he eased it against Emma's back as he covered her loosely.

"I know you weren't really planning to meet me today, but things just kind of went a different way. But I sure am glad I was here so I could hold you and help take care of you."

He heard the change in the heart monitor and glanced toward it. Though Emma was still crying frantically, her heart rate had already decreased slightly.

"I know you want your mama, and she wishes she was here right now, too, baby. But she's getting fixed up from having you. So maybe you could just let daddy take care of you for a little while. Would that be okay, Emma?"

She let out a sound that was half gasp half hiccup, and then after a few more soft cries, Emma began to relax in his hold. Alex rocked back and forth on his feet the way he'd done with patients for hours on end in the Seattle Grace NICU, creating the gentle rhythm that Addison had taught him to trust when a snuggle was all he could offer to help one of the babies get through the night.

"That's my girl. You and me, we're just gonna hang out. Everything's gonna be fine."

When Cooper checked her vitals again, her father's index finger gripped tightly in her right hand, Emma's heart rate and blood pressure were perfectly normal. Alex wasn't sure anyone could say the same for his, though, as he kept eyeing the door waiting for someone to come and tell him how Addison was.

Five more minutes passed, and just as Sarah was drawing Emma's blood for the usual round of testing, Sam walked into the NICU.

"She's okay," he said, his eyes locked with Alex's. "They stopped the bleeding and she's in recovery. Naomi's gonna stay with her until we're sure that little one here's doing okay, and then one of us will watch her so you can go see Addie."

The relief he'd felt was something he couldn't even describe. He hadn't just been facing the possible loss of a loved one; losing Addison would have been losing the most important part of his life. As that hit him, he felt himself start to break, but thankfully Cooper picked up on his distress. The pediatrician assured him Emma was stable, giving Alex the chance to take a much needed minute to gather himself.

He didn't want to be too far from his daughter, so he only stepped out into the hallway, his weakened legs forcing him to sit down on the floor, his back against the wall. A few deep breaths began to steady him, and once he felt like the building had stopped spinning, Alex reached into the pocket of his borrowed scrubs and retrieved his cell phone. He wasn't surprised to see a dozen missed calls from his friends in Seattle. More than likely, when he hadn't answered his phone the first time, Dell had tried him at the hospital, alerting the SGH staff to the emergency in LA.

He tried Bailey's number first, but it went to voice mail. Callie answered on the second ring.

"Alex, thank God. Is she all right?"

"She's okay," he said, though his voice was low and his throat was so tight, it actually hurt him to speak. "They're both okay. Emma's... she's little, but she's strong, and we're still waiting for all the tests, but she looks... I think she's okay."

"What did Addie say when she saw her?"

He felt the anxiety of the O.R. wash over him again, and his eyes stung as he tried to speak.

"She, uh... she hasn't seen her yet. She... God, Cal, she scared the hell out of me."

It was a statement he knew probably sent a million questions through Callie's mind, but she didn't press him for more than the most important detail.

"But... she's fine now, right?"

He nodded even though Callie couldn't see him. "She's okay."

Alex heard his friend let out a deep breath before she spoke again.

"Look, you go take care of your girls, okay? I'll spread the word around here. And you guys call us when Addison's feeling up to it. And, Alex?

"Yeah?"

"You're gonna rock this dad thing."[/i]

Over the course of the next few hours, Alex sat with his daughter and committed every moment of the time to memory, knowing her mother would expect a full report. And then Pete came in to take the first shift of "Emma watch" so Alex could turn his attention
toward Addison. She'd been semi-conscious when he relieved Naomi at her bedside, but he knew her body was exhausted and that she needed to rest. He also knew there'd be no keeping her in bed once she woke fully, not with Emma in the NICU. So Alex laid down with her, wrapping her in his arms and whispered that Emma was fine and that it was okay to sleep, and soon she'd drifted back off.

Thirty minutes later, Cooper came in to tell him that Emma's test results were back and they were all within normal ranges except for her weight. He also told Alex that the little girl with fuzzy reddish-brown hair was not very pleased with the formula the nurses had tried to feed her, not until Sarah had given her the special blend of formulas that Addison had perfected over the years for her more finicky eaters.

Relief had overwhelmed him, and Alex realized it had taken almost no time at all for him to fall asleep himself after Cooper had gone off to pick up some dinner for the Oceanside Wellness crew, who were going nowhere until they saw Addison awake and alert again.

That change in her status, however, seemed imminent. His sleeping beauty shifted in his arms and the movement was just enough to remind her body that it had been through surgery that day. She winced and drew in a sharp breath before exhaling slowly and opening her eyes.

"It's about time you woke up," he teased, his voice easy and playful. "Jeez, you'd think having a baby was hard work or something."

She smiled, a sleepy haze still cast over her eyes, but then those some blue-green orbs suddenly widened.

"Is she okay? Why aren't you with her? Is she..."

Alex shushed her, his hand brushing over her cheek in reassurance. "She's great. She's like... the greatest thing ever. And your partners have a rotating watch on her, so she's not alone, I promise. She's, uh, weighing in at about three and a half pounds, but her heart is perfect and her lungs are working just fine. They've got her on an apnea monitor just for insurance, but, yeah... basically she's the awesome."

Even though tears were brimming on her lower lids, Addison smiled.

"'The awesome,' huh? We'll have to get that put on a onesie for her."

"She's got some serious attitude, too, let me tell you. One of the nurses tried to burrito wrap her while Sarah was making some chart notes, and Emma about had a fit. She does not like that at all. She's a 'room to move' kinda gal. And Sarah had to make her your special formula brew. She wouldn't eat anything else. But she still only took that grudgingly, so when you're feeling up to it..."

"No, let's go now," Addison said, moving to sit up before she thought about it. She was left holding her breath as a wave of discomfort passed. Alex used the pause in her movement to change his body position so he could help her up more easily.

"Stubborn. See, that's where she gets it from."

Addison rolled her eyes at him, but he looked at her sternly as memories of the alarms in the O.R. rang in his ears.

"Alex..."

"No, no 'Alex.' We could've lost you today. So I get to be hovery and overprotective right now, okay? You don't... it was awful, and I get to make you be careful for a little while. I just do."

He stood up and moved around to the other side of the bed so he could help her stand, but when Alex reached for her, instead of taking his hands to leave the bed, she drew him closer to where she sat.

"I'm sorry I scared you. I really am."

The softness in her voice and on her face nearly undid him, and then she wrapped her arms around him, pressing her cheek into his chest.

"And she gets stubborn from you. Determined... that's what she gets from me."

His doctoring instincts told him to let Addison walk to the NICU, but his self-proclaimed hovery boyfriend tendencies told him to grab a wheelchair for their visit and then encourage her to walk later. He could see her pushing too hard, putting too much strain on her body in her haste to get to Emma, and that was the last thing any of them needed. So while Addison pulled on her robe, Alex secured a chair and returned to help her into it.

As they approached the NICU, the staff members Addison had been hiring and training the past few months came up to offer their congratulations, and Alex couldn't help but feel himself swell up a bit when she introduced him as "Emma's daddy." He was Emma's daddy...

"It's about time you got here," Naomi teased as they finally made their way to the entryway. "She was always lazy like that, even in med school. As if a critical post-delivery bleed is a good reason to lay around in bed all day."

"Ah, she's just looking for sympathy," Cooper added, playing along. "She'll be milking it for weeks, making us do her filing, get her coffee."

Addison laughed and shook her head. "You people are not nice. And you're being mean to me while blocking my path to my child."

Naomi rolled her eyes. "Speaking of your child, she is so very obviously yours. She's got Pete in there doing some baby massage thing... not even 12 hours old, and she's already having her first spa day."

They all laughed, and then the NICU door opened and Sarah stepped out, smiling as she saw who was outside.

"I thought I heard you out here. You better come in here and get this child before Dr. Pete has her all spoiled rotten, thinking life is all cute men singing to her and rubbing her back and feet."

That pulled another chuckle from the group, and then Sarah held the door open so Alex could wheel Addison through. Pete was standing by Emma's isolette, the little girl cradled in his left arm as his right palm lay against her feet so that she could press them into it.

"Hey there, beautiful," he said in greeting, his smile big at seeing Addison there finally. "I think I've got something that belongs to you."

Alex pushed the wheelchair over, and Addison anxiously reached out her arms for the tiny bundle Pete was holding. Her partner eased Emma into her hold before excusing himself to let the family be alone, and then Alex knelt down beside her as she settled their daughter in her arms.

"Hi, Emma. Hey, baby girl, how are you?"

The first few minutes she had spent with Alex had been full of stress for both father and child, but now Emma was relaxed and content. She could sense she was surrounded by love and Alex was a firm believer in how that could affect a preemie's health; he'd seen it too many times to discount it. The constant attention from him and from their friends had helped her feel secure in Addison's absence, allowing her body to adjust to being outside the womb a little earlier than expected.

Still as her mother held her and whispered softly, her fingers running gently over Emma's skin as she examined every inch of their tiny baby girl, Emma seemed to register that this... this was the person she had been waiting for. Though she was nearly asleep from Pete's massage, she opened her eyes and tried to look up at the face of the woman holding her.

"It's mommy, little girl. Mommy's here now. But I bet you hardly even missed me. Daddy took such good care of you, and all of mommy's friends were here. Because everyone was waiting to meet you, and now here you are."

The arms Emma had refused to allow to be bound earlier fluttered around now, reaching out toward her mother. Alex watched fascinated as the bond between his two girls formed right in front of him, the connection instantaneous.

"I should try to nurse her," Addison said, tearing her eyes away from the baby long enough to connect with his. Alex nodded and stood up before he and Sarah helped her stand and walk slowly over to the more comfortable rocking chair in the corner.

"Okay, Emma, mommy's never done this before, but I've sure told a ton of people how to do it. But I hear you're not a big fan of the food in this joint, so let's give it a shot, okay?"

Alex reached over to a nearby table and grabbed a clean blanket for Addison to toss over her shoulder, and as she settled Emma into position to feed, he again knelt down beside her. He could sense her nerves, and though he new that was natural for a first-time mom, he hated that she was feeling any uncertainty, especially when it was so obvious to him that Emma had already fallen completely under her mother's spell.

"You guys are gonna be fine," he said softly. "She'll probably be so glad to not have someone pushing formula on her... it'll be like her first gourmet meal."

Addison laughed, and then she moved to get Emma to start sucking. In nearly record time, the baby latched on, and Alex couldn't help but grin.

"See, what'd I tell you? She's gonna be five pounds before we even know it."

He didn't expect something that seemed so positive to him to strike Addison negatively, but he looked up from Emma's content face to her mother's and found tears streaming down it, a look of deep concern causing a furrow in her brow.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"What if they send me home without her? I can't... I... I don't want..."

He shook his head and let his hand fall on her arm. His fingers moved lightly up and down her skin as he spoke.

"You really think that the chief of staff of St. Ambrose is gonna kick the woman who set up the NICU out of the hospital while her baby's still a patient in it?"

She looked at him as if the thought hadn't even occurred to her. She started to say something, but Emma began to move her feet, and the action drew both of their attention fully, erasing any more talking for a while so they could fall more in love with their daughter.

An hour later, Addison relinquished the little form to Alex, and he happily walked Emma back toward the isolette. She was completely relaxed, her belly full, her senses calmed by the knowledge that her parents were there with her. When she stretched while he was changing her diaper, arching her little back, Alex found himself amazed at how much her personality was already starting to show itself. She was going to be the kid who tried to run around naked all the time, wanting to wear as little clothing as her parents would allow her out in public in, bare feet refusing shoes, hair not wanting to be tamed.

He smiled, imagining her toddling to him on the beach in a year or two, reddish-brown curls going in all directions. He couldn't wait, and at the same time, he reminded himself to enjoy all the time from now until then, too. He didn't want to miss a second.

Emma let him place a blanket on her loosely as he settled her down before she drifted off to sleep in the isolette. He kissed her hand and then made sure the apnea monitor was back in place before he returned to Addison.

"You did good work there, doc," he commented as he came down to eye level with her once again. "Cutest kid ever, and she's tough as nails. Her heart sounds so good, and her breathing is steady."

Addison nodded. "She fed really well, too, and her reflexes are great. We... we were so lucky."

And he knew she was right. They'd both seen enough cases where luck had not been on the side of a premature infant. Someone had smiled on them twice today, keeping both his beautiful women in his life. And he knew that if he was smart enough to recognize how differently this day could've gone, that he was not the type of man who'd ever willingly or purposely let his family down. Bailey and Callie's stored up reassurances settled over him then, reminding him that even if he hadn't been so sure of that fact from day one, people he cared for and respected had been positive he was exactly this guy.

He was just about to share that with Addison, who he thought would get a serious laugh out of her two best girlfriends in Seattle becoming his main confidants. But she suddenly dissolved right there in front of him, tears everywhere, sobs shaking her body, making her wince when her stitches pulled, and all he could think to do was scoop her up as gently as he could and pull her into his lap so he could hold her close.

"She's okay, Addison. You're both okay, and I know today was awful and scary because it pretty much sucked for me, too, until I saw her and then I saw you holding her, and now it's the best day I could ever imagine. Everything is okay."

She sobbed harder, and when she spoke, half the words were hard for him to make out because she was crying into his shoulder the whole time.

"I know I was being all grown-up and trying not to pressure you, but I don't have any more grown-up left in me, and I just... we need you here, okay? I need you here. Because I'm... I had a plan, you know? I did. I had a plan and now my plan's all gone to hell and I'm scared and I... I love you and I need you to be here, okay?"

He wanted to laugh so badly, not at her, but just because he was always so surprised when this Addison emerged. She'd chalk it up to her hormones, no doubt, and surely they were a contributing factor, but whenever she lapsed into "rambling Addison," all Alex could think was how adorable it was that someone who was so capable and so absolutely able to stand on her own got so scared when she had to admit she actually didn't have all the answers.

"Hey," he said, his hand brushing along her cheek to get her to look at him. "Remember how I got to the hospital so fast today?"

She sniffled and nodded.

"I guess now's a good time to tell you that I'm not actually magic and I don't have a secret transporter or anything. I was at Children's on a job interview."

Addison swiped at the damp spots on her cheeks and studied him. "You... you had an interview... here in town?"

"Interviews actually... Cedars, Good Sam. Children's was the last one. I met with, uh, Dr. Collier."

"Oh, he's great!" she said, her sniffles finally subsiding a bit. Then she bit her lower lip nervously. "Did you, um... did you like any of them?"

"Well, I was getting a pretty good vibe at Children's, and then I got Dell's call. And then Dr. Collier arranged for his newest resident to use the chopper to get to St. Ambrose for an emergency."

It took her a minute to pick up the implication in his statement, but once it sank in, she stared at him wide-eyed.

"So you... you decided to move here... before I went all crazy crying girl on you?"

"I decided to move here... before you went all crazy crying girl on me."

"You're sure?"

That made him give into his earlier urge, and he laughed at her without hesitation.

"Woman, just hug me, okay? And say you're happy I'm moving. I'm sure. Sure, sure, sure."

That earned him a smile, and she nuzzled against him and hugged him tightly.

"I'm very happy you're moving here. And I'm glad you aren't doing it just 'cause I went all crazy crying girl."

"I'm pretty happy about it myself."

She teased him about how he was going to owe Collier a boatload of favors for the helicopter ride, and he finally did tell her about the talks he'd shared with Torres and Bailey, and as predicted, it amused her no end that he was now confiding in her girlfriends.

Emma woke up a little while later, and they spent some more time with their daughter before Sarah chased them off to get some food and some sleep. The couple returned to Addison's room to find that a conspiracy had been launched... Sam and Naomi were waiting with take-out and to tell them that Cooper was home resting so he could come in and hang out with Emma later so they could get a break.

Even if they'd wanted to argue, the plain fact was, Addison was exhausted, though she made him promise that if he wasn't too tired, he'd go back and sit with Emma. He agreed to go, but only after she was tucked in herself. Once she was settled, he leaned over and kissed her.

"By the way, just in case it wasn't clear somehow... you and me... I thought about it, and that's totally a go."

She gave him a sleepy smile. "That's good to know, especially since, you know, I love you and all."

"Yeah, I'm kinda irresistible like that."

They both laughed and she hit him on the arm. He yelped and play acted as if it had really hurt, and then he kissed her again.

"Okay, I'm gonna go tell Emma all about how this evil redheaded woman swooped in and turned my life upside down, and how it was the best thing that ever happened to me. And you get some sleep."

Alex gave Addison one more kiss and headed for the door. He stopped, though, and turned to face her again as he stood in the open entryway.

"Oh, and I love you, too."

A few minutes later, he whispered those same words to his daughter as she looked up at him. He was almost positive his little girl's eyes sparkled exactly the way her mother's had at hearing his declaration, and though he'd not used the phrase "I love you" much in his life, he knew that Addison and Emma had changed that forever.




Okay, this basically ends this one, but there will be a small epilogue that gives us a glimpse into life for our little family a little further down the road. Thanks, everyone, for your feedback during this story and always :)

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